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Arthalden Lightshard
Arthalden Lightshard was one of two children born to the Sor'vali family name before the fall of Quel'thalas. He fought in the Second and Third Wars, before joining Prince Kael'thas's expedition to Outland. Among the Sunfury that returned to Silvermoon, he was shortly after turned into a tool of the state. Made into a Knight that wielded Light and Fel magic, he did whatever was bid of him by the Magisters. On the surface he looks akin to most other elves, almost strangely generic, the perfect picture of the Sin'dorei knight. This is due to the illusions he bears, his true form telling a much different story. Looking quite similar to one of the Withered, his musculature shriveled and his face deformed, the man cannot stand in his plate without channeling magic. His body is covered in runes of Fel and Light magic, to keep the extreme amounts of magic he channels in combat from ripping him apart. =Past= ---- Arthalden was born to a family that was rare in Elven culture. Rather than focusing on the joy of life, magic, and all pleasures to be had, they were a much more militaristic family, who had often been at the forefront of the battles with the trolls. His childhood consisted of time spent in libraries, learning of much of the history of Azeroth. What time was not spent learning, was spent training, although it was the practice of when to use which weapon, rather than actual training with the weapons themselves. It continued much like this until his fifteenth year, at which the training with weapons began. The training was done by his father, who Arthalden grew to emulate. He was often told that one day he would be the one to put his own children through such training, and would hold the family sword. He continued the training all his life, raised on tales of his families greatness, and an assurance that even though peace had lasted a long time, there would be a time they would be needed. This led to him to becoming the ideal picture of arrogance often thought of when one pictured an elf. As he grew, he became arrogant in his skills and began learning magic as well. Eager for power, he committed many acts in the dark of night, gaining what he sought, at the price of almost everything his family was. He actions left his family name ruined, and all they had left was their home. The only one of his family who ever knew he had been the reason for their decline was his sister, who never told their parents. Arthalden was their pride and joy, and she wouldn't take that from them, even if their feelings were misplaced. During the Second War, Arthalden fought along with side paladins on the battlefield, and after seeing the power the wielded, he sought them out, wishing to become one of them. As he trained in the ways of the Light, it became less about the power and more about what he could do to help others. He became much more humble during the training, though such did not last long once he left the company of the humans. During the fall of Quel'thalas, Arthalden lost many just as any other elf, his bride to be and father among them. Angered with the acts of the human prince, he was among the ones who joined Prince Kael'thas into Outland. As one of the Sunfury, he served as a Blood Knight. He would also eventually become one of the prime candidates to become one of the Fel Blood, being prepared with Fel energies and tattoos to control them, but before the time came for him to drink the demon blood to complete the process, Prince Kael'thas had fallen and risen again, calling the remaining Sunfury to Quel'danas. Arthalden was among this final group of the Sunfury that saw that the Prince had turned against his people, and returned to Silvermoon to serve them once more. When Arthalden returned to Silvermoon, he was welcomed by the Blood Knights and his mother, as many of the elves understood what had happened to Kael'thas, and did not blame his followers. This is what began the change in Arthalden from an elf who cared only for power, to one who wished to aid others however he could. Forgiven so quickly for his actions, he could not stand to look his fellow elves in the eye. This led him to become a broken mess of a man, drowning his sorrows with the bottle. But his lack of relatives and combat history had caught the eye of a few. Such a man could not be allowed to go to waste in these desperate times, and so Arthalden was taken by the Magisters. Brought to a chamber deep within Silvermoon, he spent months as subject to the re-education process the state employed on its more unruly citizens. He was to be an experiment for a breed of super soldier, carefully selected for the lack of anyone to oppose his disappearance. After those few months, his mind was completely under their control, with safeguards placed to ensure he would not be turned from their service. Once his mind was theirs, they began to work upon his body. Firstly using their mental domination, they ensured that he could not feel pain. He was then to constantly channel large amounts of Light and Fel magic, while others also channeled both of said magics into him. After roughly a year into total, Arthalden had finally formed the first stage of what they sought. A knight who wielded both Light and Fel magic side by side. As the Magistrate's puppet, Arthalden still wasn't sent on too many missions. He was largely used as a showpiece, to try and convince others within the Magistrate to create more like him. Due to his inexperience with wielding the magic he possessed, he spent the majority of his time killing undead around Quel'thalas for practice until the Pandaria campaign. While they had initially planned to send him to Pandaria as the first true field testing of what they had created, the presence of the sha changed their minds. The sha was declared a risk to his mind control, and thus he was kept within Quel'thalas until the Siege of Orgrimmar. There they saw that he was even more effective against living foes, being able to draw from their lifeforce to fuel his fel magic. When the portal to Draenor opened, Arthalden stayed behind. Those in charge of him deemed the troubles of another world a small concern to the Kingdom of Quel'thalas, the Alliance a far greater threat. So Arthalden was instead sent to act as a sleeper agent amongst the Alliance, with the hope that he might learn skills from the Alliance's paladins, and any news of attacks against Quel'thalas. Eventually, he found his way to the Alliance of Arathor. He was in the organization for many months, quickly rising the ranks, eventually becoming the First Knight of Arathor, Highlord of the Stromgarde Silver Hand, High General of the Stewards forces, and Margrave of Thoradin's Wall. While he cared little for the squabbles of the northern humans, the positions they granted him so quickly served him quite well in gathering information. Eventually, he departed from the Alliance of Arathor when they entered into a war against another group of the north. Such would put him more involved with Alliance conflict than the magisters in control of him wished, and they had found the general dislike of the Northmen by much of the Alliance to be a limiting factor in the information he could gather. After his departure, he joined the ranks of the Highguard. Ordered to investigate the actions of the Sin'dorei's estranged kin, he was quickly accepted, for they knew him from his time and Arathor and was well known as a voice of reason amongst the chaotic region. It was here the Magisters learned of a major weakness of their mind control. They had not expected Arthalden to be able to fall in love, but they found that it could severely alter the actions of the elf from what they wished. He was recalled to Silvermoon, and his mind was altered even more so that he was drawn far more to unliving elves as to reduce the chances of such an event ever occurring again. However with his true identity, as a blood elf revealed and having been placed within the Highguards leadership, along with the oncoming threat of the Legion, he was ordered to depart from the group to ensure he was not lost by Silvermoon. During the Legions invasion of Azeroth, he was constantly sent to fight against demons. He was deployed wherever they posed a threat to the Horde, largely kept off the Broken Isles until the second assault on the Broken shore. However, they found that such constant warfare had vastly deteriorated his form, his recovery time between battles constantly growing longer. Once the portal to Argus had been opened, they returned him to his former mission of spying on the Alliance, as a measure to keep him useful while they searched for a solution to the state of his body. He once more found himself among the northern members of the Alliance, working with The Citrine Eagle. His work with them largely still focused on the defeat of demons, but he was always to keep an ear out for any interesting information on the Alliance. It was on Argus that the solution to his ailing form was found, for the ability of Astral Glory to purge fel magic did much to stop his body from growing worse, but no progress could be made to mend his form while he still had to fight. With a cure found and the Legion defeated, he was once more recalled to Quel'thalas. He spent months recuperating, and the habitat of Astral Glory they had created allowed them to constantly turn the herb in a serum that could cleanse his body of fel corruption. But with the war between the Alliance and Horde arriving once more, he was given little chance to rest. He was placed onto the battlefield once more, and he was to serve under The Dominion of the Sun. Category:Characters Category:Quel'Thalas Peerage Category:Kingdom of Quel'Thalas Category:Paladins Category:High Elf Category:The Citrine Eagle Category:Blood Knights Category:Blood Elf Category:Dominion of the Sun Category:Hand of Vengeance